Dancing Peacock Paradise

Dancing Peacock Paradise

Special Issue: The Yezidis of Iraq

This special issue of Dancing Peacock Paradise newsletter is an appeal by Gainesville dancer, photographer, editor and publisher Patrick Harrigan.  View this email in your browser Patrick Harrigan, seen here (above at right) among dance friends at Dancing Peacock Paradise, is a Gainesville, Florida based researcher and publisher. A student since 1970 of South Asian languages and traditions, Patrick describes himself as a semi-retired indological explorer, photographer, writer and publisher. Most any evening of the week, Patrick is either dancing or training at Aikido of Gainesville.  "It is time that I should tell my own very personal story of exploration and discovery. Now it has become interwoven with the story of the Yezidi people of northern Iraq," says Patrick. "So let me start by introducing myself as an unabashed friend and ally of oppressed indigenous minorities, including the Yezidis and the Wanniyalaetto of Sri Lanka." Following the ISIS attack upon Yezidi communities in 2014, a representative of Yezidis' supreme spiritual leader the Baba Sheikh reached out and asked Patrick for help. Patrick readily agreed.  Later in October when ISIS surrounded Mount Shingal, the Baba Sheikh rushed to Washington DC to request urgent help from the White House and State Department, he also requested a meeting with Patrick, who rushed up from Florida to meet the Yezidi pontiff at the Murugan Temple of North America. Patrick and the Baba Sheikh met during a ceremony marking the climax of the titanic conflict between the forces of light and darkness. Since that meeting, Patrick has been serving the Yezidi nation Ezidikhan in his capacity as Secretary of  the Yezidi Sanatana Dharma Society.

Who are the Yezidis? What can we learn from Yezidis and their traditions? And what you can do about it? The 2018 Nobel Peace Prize recognizes Nadia Murad, a 25-year-old survivor of captivity at the hands of the Islamic State, for her campaign to expose ISIS brutalities and end the use of rape as a weapon of war. After escaping her captors in 2014, she become a champion for the rights of women and the Yezidi people, bringing the plight of a little-known ethnic minority to the attention of world leaders and the global media. Scattered in the regions of Sinjar, Dohuk and Mosul of northern Iraq, Yezidis are an ancient Kurdish-speaking religious minority. According to scholars, Yezidism is an ancient faith with a rich oral tradition that integrates some Islamic beliefs with elements of the ancient Persian religion of Zoroastrianism, and the mystery religion of Mithraism which originated in the Eastern Mediterranean. The Yezidis' ancient gnostic faith has made them a target of terrorist organisations. Beginning with the attack by Islamic State in Mount Sinjar in August 2014, authorities and human rights organizations estimate that between 2,000 to 5,500 Yezidi people have been killed, and over 7,000 Yezidi people kidnapped. Yezidis believe that the world was created by God, who entrusted it to seven archangels led by one known as Melek Taus, literally the 'Peacock Angel', the principal figure in the Yezidi belief system, who made the earth fertile and regulates affairs on earth to this day . Yezidi religion is monotheistic and non-dualistic, and they do not believe in the concept of hell. For them, all people have good and evil inside of them, and choices are made free of external temptation. They believe in internal purification through rebirth or reincarnation.   The sacred knowledge of Yezidis is preserved and passed along orally from generation to generation and may not be shared or printed--just as wisdom traditions of India, such as the Vedas, were once preserved. This is because words convey certain kinds of knowledge but cannot convey the deepest metaphysical truths.    The striking parallels between Hinduism and Yezidi traditions have attracted the attention of Yezidis, Hindus and scholars of religion alike. Patrick Harrigan, a specialist on the worship of the Indian child-god Skanda or Murugan, is preparing his own research paper on this fascinating and controversial topic of how the Yezidis and Hindus share so many elementary principles that all point to the same sublime divinity.

Here is how you can help Yezidis. Help to ease the suffering of one Yezidi family at a time. I have promised to help this Yezidi family. Go to our fund raising page and contribute with $10, $25, $100 or any amount that feels right to you. Yezidi families had to flee their native district Shingal for their lives when ISIS overran northern Iraq in 2014. Forced to live in harsh conditions year-round in camps in Kurdistan, family members find no employment while they subsist on aid as refugees within their own country. Rakan Edo, a translator (at right), had been helping Patrick to translate official documents when his twelve year old brother Hafal suffered a serious eye injury: total retina detachment and PVR. Hafal urgently needed a cataract and pars plana vitrectomy operation. The operations had to be done quickly if Hafal was to have a chance of keeping his vision. When WestEye Hospital's eye surgeon Dr. Noor el Din offered to do all the procedures at a reduced fee of US $3,300, Hafal's family still despaired since they only had $200 left by then. In September Hafal's older brother Rakan then reached out to Patrick Harrigan, who organized a Facebook fundraiser that just raised the $2,000 down payment due to WestEye Hospital before the procedures could begin. Happily, the procedures were deemed to be successful. However, Hafal's family now has to pay the balance $1,300 owed to the hospital. And they have spent several hundred dollars on four long distance trips by hired car, overnight stays in the city, meals, and medical tests. So we need to raise a further US$2,000 to settle the hospital bill and to save his family from financial destitution.  This fund raising campaign is being coordinated by Hafal's older brother Rakan and by Patrick Harrigan of Gainesville, Florida, USA who has been working with Yezidis on a daily basis since 2014. Rakan and Patrick are in daily contact by phone and text. We will keep our donors and friends posted until Hafal and his family get through this crisis.  Thanks and appreciation to everyone who has had a role so far in bringing help and hope to Hafal and his family!

On 11 October Hafal's family had to pay the full US$3,300 cost of the operation. With four trips into Erbil city for tests and procedures, the cost to his family comes to $4,000, half of which we already raised and paid. Now we need your help to pay the balance $2,000. TO DONATE, CLICK HERE OR ON ANY OF THESE IMAGES. Peacock-Angel.org Florida Dances of Universal Peace PeacockParadise.org Email Patrick www.PeacockParadise.org        www.DancesOfUniversalPeace.org        www.Ruhaniat.org Newsletter Layout - Diana Kanoy       Webmaster - Patrick Harrigan ©2021 All Rights Reserved